Fragments of Angela
by doornumberthree
Summary: All the little pieces of Angela are being put back together again, by herself and by Hodgins. So why had she said no? A portrayal of what I think of Angela's actions. Please read and review, it would be incredibly great!


Angela Montenegro can be compared to one of the many skeletons that enter the Medico-Legal Lab at the Jeffersonian. The bones arrive in the exam room with remnants of their past embedded deep within, invisible to the naked eye. These remnants of the past have a story to tell, a story that can explain how the skeleton ended up the way they did. Angela is very much the same. What she does is often caused by her past, small fragments of her life that have forever influenced her actions- fragments like her mother not being around, her Fijian husband. These fragments that piece together Angela are not immediately apparent; however they can be detected with skill and precision.

Sometimes Angela wondered if Jack Hodgins was going to be the skilled scientist that uncovered all the little pieces deep within her that revealed why she is the way she is. She didn't doubt it, especially because he would no doubt be curious as to why she said no. Angela knew that she loved him with her whole heart. She knew that she wanted to be with him. What she _didn't_ know was why she had held back from saying yes.

He had proposed last night, with words so sweet and tender that she could feel her heart melting. But she had said no. Instead of going home and making love like she had wanted to, Jack dropped her off at her apartment. She had tried fruitlessly to get to sleep, but thoughts of Jack were keeping her up all night. She sighed and gave up the illusion of sleeping. Angela made some herbal tea and cuddled up in front of the television, turning a blind eye towards reruns of Full House but not really seeing it. Her thoughts had seemed to enter into another dimension entirely, and Angela was welcoming a little insight from her inner voice as to why she had refused him.

There was no reason why she should have turned down Hodgins, and her bumbling and embarrassing conversation with him at their dinner had been empirical evidence of that. She couldn't explain eloquently why, hell; she didn't even have the faintest clue as to why she had declined his proposal. Hodgins was everything she had ever wanted in a man. He was absolutely brilliant. He had enough passion to make her head spin, and not just in their lovemaking, but in everything that he did, whether it be his work or his conspiracy theories. He was a kind and decent man, modest and giving. He balanced her so perfectly that she couldn't believe it sometimes. So what the hell was her issue?

Angela was always reminding Zack to act like he was part of the human race, telling him to speak to people with his heart and not his head. She tried to be a constant source of information and knowledge for Brennan about love and life, always telling her to just take a chance and live for the moment. Angela wasn't a modest person; she was aware of her strengths and her weakness. She prided herself on almost always knowing what to say to make her socially inept friends understand. So why was it that Angela was so wise and so in tune to other people, when sometimes she wasn't even in tune with herself? It was finally time to admit what she had been avoiding since their very first date: Angela Montenegro, artist and love guru extraordinaire, was a hypocrite.

But then again, perhaps Angela wasn't as much of a hypocrite as she had initially thought. Yes, she told Brennan and Zack and sometimes even Booth to take all the chances they can, to live and love without shame. And yes, she was going against her own advice by turning down Hodgins. But she was finally happy, not only with her love life, but with her work and herself. What if all of the happiness that she had built up collapsed around her? She remembered someone (perhaps Madonna?) saying once that hypocrisy was simply a clever disguise for being afraid: afraid of yourself and your own truth.

But now Angela knew her own truth, and now that she had acknowledged this, her fear began to unravel in shreds like the flesh that Zack had just recently boiled off their resident spaceman.

Now that she had faced up to her hypocrisy, her fear and her truth, she knew what she had to do. She clicked off the television and tossed the remote haphazardly onto the coffee table, ignoring the sloshing of the water spilling over the edge of the vase as the remote hit it. She stood up and slipped into the flipflops that she had left by the door. After grabbing a hair tie and tugging her waves into a messy bun, Angela grabbed her purse and headed out to her car.

Forty minutes later, Angela was finally standing in front of Jack's front door. It was only a twenty minute drive between their houses, but Angela had pulled over several times in order to calm her breath and steady her shaky hands. She rang the bell, and wasn't surprised when Jack answered the door- he hated having maids and servants around the house.

Before he could speak, Angela held her finger up to his mouth. "Please. Just let me talk."

"Hodgins, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for being a hypocrite and being afraid."

He opened his mouth in protest, but Angela shushed him again.

"Jack, please!" She huffed in annoyance.

She waited for a minute, took a deep breath, and grasped his hands. Then, she sank down on one knee.

"Jack, I love you more than I ever thought possible. Will you do me the honor of becoming my husband?"

Jack blinked. Then blinked again. And then once more. "Angela, I know I'm not always socially aware, but isn't the guy supposed to do this?"

She chuckled, "Well, when have I ever been one to do things traditionally?"

He grinned, then quickly dropped down on his knees also.

Angela quirked an eyebrow, wondering what he was doing.

"Angela, I love _you_ more than I ever thought possible. Will you do _me_ the honor of being my wife?"

She laughed. "Sweetie, that is the exact kind of proposal I wanted, and this time it feels right. Really right. So, yes, I'll marry you."

Jack grinned, face lighting up and a twinkle in his eyes. Angela pressed her lips to his, matching his grin for her own.

Turns out that Jack was the one to piece together all of her fragments. Because, after all, even the smallest bits of a person can be put back together again to form a nearly perfect replica. Just ask Jack and Angela.

Authors Note:

Well, I wrote this very early this morning, around three a.m. I was dreaming all through the night about the episode, the proposal, basically. I woke up about halfway through the night, and the ideas just kept coming. Perhaps that was the issue- I had so many ideas for a fic about this particular episode that they all kind of meshed together. This brings me to my next concern: personally, I believe that this is not my best work. I think it's kind of fragmented and choppy, and doesn't flow very well, and has a few too many ideas to work well as a one-shot. Though it's not perfect, nothing ever is, so I'm going to post it anyway. I hope you all like it, and please tell me what you think.

Thanks for reading and reviewing (hopefully)!


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